The man reputed to be the head of the Italian-American Gambino crime family, Frank Cali, was
assassinated while leaving his home on Staten Island, New York on Thursday morning.
Cali was shot dead by a gunman who made his get away in a blue pick-up truck while police have not
yet suggested the motive for the killing. US media however, has speculated it may be the result of an
inter-mafia dispute.
The 54-year-old Mafia Don was shot at least six times according to witnesses and was rushed to
Staten Island University Hospital North where he was pronounced dead.
Cali, who is related through marriage to the Inzerillo clan in the Sicilian Mafia, became the boss of
the Gambino Family in 2015 replacing 68-year-old Domenico Cefalu.
The Mafioso was seen as a unifying figure and reverted to the more traditional methods of running
the crime family by keeping a low profile and utilising Italian immigrant gangsters brought to
America specifically to work for the crime syndicate.
“He was a real quiet old-school boss,” a police source told the New York Post.
Cali had only been jailed once in 2008 for sixteen months in relation to an extortion conspiracy.
The Gambino Family was once considered one of the most powerful criminal organisations in the
United States if not the world.
However, federal prosecutions in the 1980’s and 1990’s sent its top leaders to prison and diminished
its power and influence.
Cali is highest ranking member of the Italian-American mafia to be killed in New York since Paul
Castellano was assassinated outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan in 1985, which paved the way
for the rise of the infamous “Teflon Don” John Gotti.